1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image diagnosis assistance apparatus, a processing method thereof, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
One known data processing technology using a computer is inference technology, where an unknown event is inferred based on knowledge extracted from a known event. Even in the medical field, studies have recently been carried out to assist the diagnosis of a morbid portion using an inference apparatus. For example, research is being conducted to develop a technique of inputting the characteristic values (image features or image findings) of a medical image and inferring whether an abnormal shade on the medical image is benign or malignant.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-541889 discloses a system that analyzes a medical image, extracts image features, calculates initial diagnosis based on them, and offers the user the initial diagnosis. In this system, when the user changes the image features, the diagnosis result is dynamically recalculated. The thus calculated image features and diagnosis result are generated as a diagnosis report after the user has confirmed and properly modified.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-163465 discloses a technique of calculating and outputting the predicted value of a target variable value (for example, diagnosis) of input unknown medical data and the reliability measure of the prediction itself based on known medical data accumulated in a database.
In the above-described technique of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-541889, the system performs image feature calculation and diagnoses before the user and presents the result to the user. For this reason, it is impossible to cause the user to input image features and a diagnosis result first and then cause the system to present, to the user, image features and diagnosis results calculated later. In the technique of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-541889, if the user changes an image feature, the image feature calculated by the system is not used for the image feature. For this reason, even if the system can calculate a more reliable image feature than the user, it is not used, and more reliable diagnostic inference cannot be performed.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-163465 allows calculation of the predicted value of diagnosis and the reliability measure of the prediction itself. However, even if the reliability is revealed to be poor, more reliable diagnostic inference cannot be performed.